[ Business Week ] Latest Trends in Design and Innovation–And Why The Debate Over Design Thinking is Moot
July 31st, 2009
4– A new VCD (Venture Capital Design) model is emerging. Yves Behar’s fuseprojects and others are funding new brands either directly or with partners. Designers are using their talent for spotting new trends and their ability to translate insights into new products and services to directly create new brands, instead of doing it for large companies. Smart began the trend by taking royalty positions in OXO in other brands many years ago as part of its compensation. This has expanded to funding new brands. A VCD model embraces both strategy and stuff and adds investment to the mix.
Venture Capital firms are turning to Behar and other Designers to bring them brands and concepts. This is a new role for Designers.
So where does this reality of Design fit into the discussion of Design within academia? Not well. There is a big gap between Design practitioners (at least at the top consultancies) and Design educators. The debate over doing and thinking taking place within Design Thinking is moot and meaningless in the marketplace. When design consultancies are asked to set up their own “universities” to teach design to corporate managers public leaders as IDEO and ZIBA have done, then we must ask why design schools aren’t playing that role.